Comedian Kevin Hart. Wikipedia photo: Eva Rinaldi - https://www.flickr.com/photos/evarinaldiphotography/12966419535/
After comedian Kevin Hart and his wife Eniko came under fire for posting their one-year-old son’s Cowboy and Indians-themed birthday party photos on Instagram, the comedian responded on his Sirius XM radio show Straight From the Hart about the incident.
TMZ posted an audio extract from Hart’s radio program in which he spoke on the issue. Hart spoke for a few minutes and summed up his comments stating, ‘This isn’t a racial slur that people are doing and being malicious with. This is a game.’
Hart started the segment by mentioning the fact that his wife had posted the photos, talked about the responses on social media. He countered that the Dallas Cowboys and Washington NFL team had played the same day.
“So she posts this picture and the next day there’s a lot of flack, you know, I don’t go on the sh—— I don’t read none of that. So she tells me, she’s like, yo, well go look at this dumb sh—— on TMZ. You know, people are complaining … she goes on Fox about, uh, about the Cowboys and Indians party … This is a very insensitive thing. Keep in mind the same day the Cowboys played the Redskins on TV … The reason why I’m even bringing this dumb sh– up because it shows just how stupid our world is becoming with opinion. People are at a point of an all-time high to throw racial judgment into the development of a one-year-old birthday party where the theme is Cowboys and Indians and it’s based around the outfits that are given to these young kids,” said Hart on the show.
One of Hart’s co-hosts asked, “Well, what if the next year somebody throws a slave owner and a slave party?” To which Hart responded, “If you don’t think there’s neighborhoods where they played that game and certain white neighborhoods, then you f——— idiot, you don’t think they had dumb ass games like that as a kid? Do we play cops and robbers as a kid? Did you play Cowboys and Indians?”
When one of the co-hosts says “We didn’t play blackface,” Hart responded, “That’s not a game.”
Hart ended his argument saying the reason for people playing Cowboy and Indians was because of the fights audiences have seen in movies.
“So as a kid, when you played these games, it was based off of the premise from a hypothetical place that was put into perception for movies. So what I’m saying, this isn’t something that has just started. This isn’t a racial slur that people are doing and, and being malicious with. This is a game that’s been played for years. I’m about to be 40-years-old. I remember at the age six, seven playing these dumb ass games. I remember playing cops and robbers.”
Indian Country Today has reached out to Hart and his representatives for comments, they have not responded to a request for comment.
Follow Indian Country Today’s associate editor Vincent Schilling (Akwesasne Mohawk) on Twitter –@VinceSchilling
